2016 - 2017 Season

2016-2017

The Addams Family

Creepy. Kooky. Mysterious and spooky. Yes, they're the Addams Family, and the New Albany High School Drama Department is bringing them to the McCoy on November 17th - 19th!

The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy is based upon Charles Addams' wildly popular single-panel cartoon series, which also inspired several live action and animated films and television shows, most notably the iconic series from 1964 - 1966 starring John Astin, Carolyn Jones, and Jackie Coogan and the movies from 1991 and 1993 with Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, and Christopher Lloyd.

All of your favorite characters have their parts to play in the musical: the proud sword-wielding patriarch Gomez; the alluring and sultry matriarch Morticia; Uncle Fester, bald-pated and frocked; Wednesday, her long, dark pigtails framing an emotionless face; mischievous little Pugsley; ancient Grandmama, the family's de facto apothecary; and the towering Lurch.

In the show, a problem has arisen: Wednesday Addams has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke, a 'normal' boy from Ohio whose Midwestern suburbanite family does not delight in the macabre. The young lovers intend to marry, but before they do, the Addamses and the Beinekes need to meet. Calamity, of course, ensues.

Will Wednesday and Lucas, with help from Uncle Fester and the Addams family ancestors, be able to smooth out the differences between their families? Find out at one of the performances:

Thursday, November 17th at 7:30 P.M.

Friday, November 18th at 7:30 P.M.

Saturday, November 19th at 2:30 P.M.

Saturday, November 19th at 7:30 P.M.

All performances will be held at the McCoy Center for the Arts. Tickets can be purchased by calling the CAPA Ticket Office at (614) 469-0939, on www.ticketmaster.com, and at the door the night of the performance. Tickets are $9 / $11 for staff members, senior citizens, and students and $13 / $15 general admission. Certain service fees may apply.

The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy is not only full of catchy new songs like "When You're An Addams" and "Full Disclosure" but also will have you rolling in the aisles with laughter. It's an experience you won't want to miss!

When the audience sees members of the Addams family on stage during New Albany High School's next theater production, they will be viewing the actors in grayscale.

Director Elliott Lemberg said his decision to color Gomez, Morticia and the rest of brood in shades of white, gray and black is rooted in his idea of referencing the Addams family's origin as single-panel drawings.

"I wanted to harken back to the old Charles Addams comics," Lemberg said.

Lemberg said those aspects of the comics, which Addams began in the 1930s as a satire of the traditional American family, will be incorporated into the set and makeup in "The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy," which begins at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts.

The stage's set is designed in a manner meant to look somewhat two-dimensional, Lemburg said.

Though the musical is set in present day, the Addamses' gothic-style house will stand in contrast to its location in New York City's Central Park, he said.

The park will be brighter, but "by the time we get in the Addams house, it's like all the color has been drained out of everything," he said.

Although the musical draws on "The Addams Family" TV show and movies, the production doesn't duplicate them, Lemberg said. Some of the plot revolves around teenaged Wednesday, who falls in love with a boy whose family travels from Ohio to meet the Addamses.

Although Wednesday's boyfriend and his family will be in contemporary clothing, the Addamses' costumes will have a gothic theme, Lemberg said. Ghosts representing the Addamses' ancestors will be dressed in attire suiting the various time periods they are from. Ten lead ancestors will be in shades of white, while the rest will be dressed in gray tones.

Forty actors are in the cast, said junior Abby Bartleson, who serves as assistant director. Bartleson, 16, said that because of the production's size, she works with the ensemble closely and gives actors feedback on ways to improve certain scenes.

Bartleson said she already enjoyed "The Addams Family" story and added that the dark comedy works well with a high school cast.

"No matter the age, it can be funny," she said.

A comedic role is a change of pace for senior Colin Sproule, who plays Uncle Fester.

"He's such a goofball," said Sproule, 18.

Although Sproule finds attempting humor to be challenging, he is learning how to do it, he said.

While Sproule's Uncle Fester bumbles around, senior Audrey Soska's Morticia was described as the picture of elegance and grace.

Soska said she fell in love with the show after reading the script and listening to the music. She said she prepared for her role by studying Morticia's mannerisms and reactions by watching online videos.

She has found footage of comic artist Charles Addams describing his wife as the influence for Morticia and is using that to bring her role to life.

The production itself is a team effort. The Short North Stage provided set design, while CAPA contributed sound and lighting, Lemberg said. Debbie's Costume Shop designed the costumes, Broadway Bound Dance Centre provided choreography and Scott Core designed the makeup.

"The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy" will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 and 18 and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the McCoy Center, 100 W. Dublin-Granville Road in New Albany. Tickets may be purchased at the door, by calling 614-469-0939 or visiting ticketmaster.com.

The New Albany High School Drama Department proudly presents the Central Ohio premiere of Anne Washburn's brilliant MR. BURNS, a post-electric play that--according to Ben Brantley of The New York Times--will "leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas".

In the very near future, survivors of a global catastrophe gather around a campfire to recall the culture that has been lost, settling on the "Cape Feare" episode of the long-lived animated series about the dysfunctional all-American family, The Simpsons.

By the second act of the play--set 7 years after the first--the characters have transformed this The Simpsons episode into a live performance, complete with song and dance, that they perform for audiences around the countryside.

The third act transports the audience 75 years into the future when this episode of The Simpsons has become an embedded part of their culture, resembling Greek Tragedy.

It's wildly absurd, yet brilliantly incisive.

The show opens on April 20th and performs in Mershad Hall at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Performing Arts. The production will feature an original costume design by Debbie's Costume Shop, makeup design by Scott Core, and set design by Edward Carignan, the Artistic Director of Short North Stage. The production will be supported by our CAPA technical crew, led by Jim Cantrell.

Performances:

April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

April 22 at 7:30 p.m.

April 23 at 2:30 p.m.

April 27 at 7:30 p.m.

April 28 at 7:30 p.m.

April 29 at 7:30 p.m.

April 30 at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets begin at $8 for staff / seniors / students and can be purchased online at www.seatyourself.biz/nahs. A limited amount of tickets will be available for purchase at the door after the online sales have closed.